Roger Williams: Visionary Thinker, Essay Example

Hope: Roger Williams, I want to discuss with you the importance of keeping God in schools.  It has been an issue that has gone on forever.  Does God belong in schools?  This particular issue dates back to when you founded Rhode Island, and it continues to upset everyone, regardless of what side of the argument they are on.  Our schools now-a-days are so widely diverse with different nationalities and religions that parents and even the children themselves are getting upset that Christianity and God is still a priority, despite the fact that God is not everyone’s God.  At the beginning of the school day, we say the pledge of allegiance and the word God is mentioned, and now school administrators, parents, and students want to take His name out of our pledge allegiance.  However, our founding fathers who created this country were all Christian, our constitution was based on it, and this entire nation was founded on Christianity.  At what point do we move forward and make one set decision on this issue?  Is it religious tolerance to allow God in schools, or is religious tolerance to allow all types of religion into schools?  At what point is it too much tolerance?  If our country was founded on the belief in God, do we keep it that way, or adhere to the melting pot of America?

Roger: I have been in favor of religious liberty since I came to this country.  When I first came to America, I was immediately offered a position with the Church of Boston because they had not broken their tie to the Church of England.  I was passionate about religion being an independent, personal but free decision.  Religion is very passionate topic for me, in fact I spent my entire life dedicating my time and energy into making sure colonists got that religious freedom and right as a citizen in our New World.  It was taken advantage of in the late 1600s, and it is still take advantage of here in the United States.

I think about the people in other countries who are not even allowed the privelege to pray in their own homes for fear that they would be killed.  They cannot worship even within the privacy of their own families!  Whereas, here in America, you can pray anytime and anywhere without being persecuted or prosecuted for it.  Someone can start singing praises in the supermarket if they wanted and it would not be against the law, something that you can attribute to the many advances of your political and judicial systems.

I feel that that religious tolerance should also translate within the school system.  I do not think we should take God out of the pledge of allegiance.  That is a pledge that was founded by the founders when this country was created and out of respect for their lives spent dedicated to the cause of freedom and the blood that has been shed for this beautiful nation, you should respect it and keep it in your pledge of allegiance.  As far as prayers in schools, times have changed; Christianity is not the only popular religion.  I believe that schools should have prayer time and times of silence to respect all religious beliefs.  The student does not have to make a public declaration of their faith and religion but they should be able to bow their heads and pray when they wish, and to whatever God they wish as long as fellow students are not made uncomfortable.

Hope: Mr. Williams, I would like to bring up another point that is very crucial in our times with relationship to church and the educational system.  The argument is that God and religion should be taken out of the education system altogether in order to promote equality of all religions.  I argue that by taking away God from the educational system, we are taking away the foundations that this country was built and we are punishing those children and families that call themselves Christians.  It is a hindrance of the rights of Christians, not a promotion of rights for all other religions.  I feel that the religious tolerance we have been speaking about should also translate within the school.  God should stay in the pledge of allegiance, and if children need to pray let there be times of silence.

Roger Williams: You bring about many good points regarding this issue, and I am not surprised that this issue is still prevalent in your time.  When I was fighting my own battles over the separation of church and state and providing religious tolerance for all peoples, regardless of culture and beliefs, I faced opposition and was actually banished from my home in October of 1635 for the crimes of heresy and divisiveness.  These were the words for my crimes; however, I believe my crimes were actually having a dissenting opinion and being free-thinking in a time where Puritan thought was very single-minded and punished all those people that did not follow the same line of thought and belief system.  To return to your point, it is important to understand that all peoples have the right to believe in what God they wish and in whatever manner they wish.  I created a safe haven in Providence that allowed for peoples of all beliefs and walks of life could come to practice their religions freely and without governmental interference or persecution.  In 1643, I was able to retrieve a charter from our homeland in England that saw Providence and our colonial neighbors as legitimate colonies that operated with the clear understanding that there was to be a separation between church and state.

Hope: I hate to cut you off, but it is important for you to realize that our democratic system has been founded on religious beliefs.  We have rights just an every other society does, but we have honored God on our dollar bill for our currency, in our pledge of allegiance that every school child learns and recites daily, and we even swear to God with our hand resting on the Bible if we testify in open court.  These are just a few of the ways that our country shows its Christian belief system as the foundation for everything that we stand for.

Roger Williams: Then why, my girl, do the people of this country curse and belittle Muslims and Jews for their practices of opposite and different religions?  In my own observations, Muslims are very similar to the Narragansett Indians that I became very familiar with and developed relationships with their culture and members of their tribes.  They are persecuted and cast aside, even hated for being different.  They pray three times a day by getting on their knees and bowing.  Because this is not the norm in your “Christian” society, the people persecute them with words of hate and fear that are completely inappropriate.  While you may believe that the society is very modern in today’s time, it is actually not very different from my time in the 1600s.  I and many of my closest friends were cast out and convicted of crimes against the government for our religious beliefs that were not in line with the line of thought.  Can you tell me what has changed in your time?

Hope: Well, our courts will not banish you from our country for practicing a separate religion.

Roger Williams: Yes, but your educational system will not provide the same rights to every member of different religions.  It really comes down to a matter of acceptance.  If your educational system cannot learn to accept others for the way they are, then your culture will not continue to evolve and accept others either.  Your pledge of allegiance does not need to be changed and the word God should not be taken out of government or educational documents.  However, your educational system needs to consider the natural rights of students from other religions and not force students to recite something that they do not believe.

Hope: How are these kids supposed to be upstanding members of our country and become trustworthy citizens, if they do not know the pledge of allegiance?

Roger Williams: Do you need to know how many stars and stripes are on the flag in order to know that you are a citizen of the United States?  Should a person have to conform to your way of thinking in order to be accepted within society?  No member of government and no member of society has the right to govern or demand that any individual bow down to the societal norms in this country.  People should be free to choose what they believe in and how they are going to practice their religion.  Religious tolerance does not mean taking the rights away from Christians or even ending a cultural practice that is performed by students reciting the pledge of allegiance.  Religious tolerance is having the ability to understand and accept others, with dissenting viewpoints and beliefs, for who they are and to allow those individuals the right to practice their religions as they see fit.

Hope: I believe that you are right.  Although we may disagree, we can agree that no changes should be made in the educational system or the current practices of the day.  However, the educational system cannot mandate that a student recite the pledge of allegiance or take prayer out of schools because it is not showing religious tolerance to member of other religions.  Mr. Williams, thank you very much for all of your time and I am very glad that you were able to help me shed light on this topic.

Works Cited

A new wave of colonists. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from Annenberg Media Learner Web site: http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog02/transcript/page04.html

Roger Williams (1603?-1683). Retrieved September 26, 2009, from Cengage Learning Online Study Center Web site: http://www.college.cengage.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/colonial/williams_ro.html

Roger Williams (theologian). Retrieved September 26, 2009, from The Free Dictionary Web site: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Roger%20Williams%20(theologian)

Williams, R. Forced worship stinks in god’s nostrils. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from Roger Williams Institute for Religious Liberty Web site: http://www.libertyparkusafd.org/lp/Williams/primers%5CRoger%20Williams%20–%20Forced%20worship%20stinks%20in%20God%27s%20nostrils.htm